Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
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_ 1- PATENT 221PUS04081
IMPROVEMENT IN DUST RECYCLING TO ROTARY KILNS
TECHNICAL FIELD
This invention relates to an improvement in waste dust recycling for
rotary kilns. More particularly it relates to the use of both oxygen
addit~on and dust recycling to control the flame geometry in a rotary k~ln.
Rotary kllns are used for thermal processing many mineral products
includtng, but not limited to calcinlng clays, vanadium ox~de, phosphate
rock alumina, llme, and cements.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Due to the tumbling action and gas flow patterns, rotary kilns generate
dust. This dust consists of the fines in the feed materials and fines
generated by the breakdown of larger feed particles due to attritlon. To
date, no one has been able to elim~nate dust generatlon in rotary kilns.
Th~s ~nvention is a process by which two opposing effects are used to
maintain a desired flame geometry in a rotary k~ln. Dust insufflat~on w~ll
cool and lengthen the flame in a rotary k~ln. Oxygen add~tion will shorten
and intens~fy it. By suitably proportioning dust and oxygen add~t~on while
properly fuel7ng the furnace, the flame geometry requ~red for a part~cular
rotary k~ln is mair,talned wh~le dust utilization is increased.
Durlng the thermal processing of mineral products a certain amount
of dust is entrained in the gas system exhaust~ng the klln. This dust ~s
primarily composed of partially processed product. Some of the dust may
be completely processed product, unburned carbon, condensates and eroded
furnace l~ning. The dust ~s usually collected ~n an env~ronmental control
system (baghouse, cyclone separator, electrostat~c precip7tator, etc.) to
keep the furnace particulate em~ss~ons with~n the air quality gu~dellnes.
Th~s dust is not marketable as the originally intended finished
product. It presents a d~sposal problem and ~s somet~mes hazardous. The
amount of dust generated can vary widely but is typically 4 to 15% of the
theoret~cal yield of product.
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If this dust can be recycled into the product, a disposal
cost is eliminated and production can be increased with no cost
increases upstream of the kiln (i.e. mining, grinding, etc.)
Heretofore little or no waste dust could be recycled into
the kiln. M; ~; ng with kiln feed does not work because the fine
dust particles become entrained in the counter flow (flue) gas
stream. Introduction into the furnace hot end produces a
lengthening of the flame and a cooling in the flame temperature
causing lower heat flux and incomplete heat treatment of the
product.
Some dust has been successfully recycled in wet process
cement kilns. This techn;que, known as insufflation, is very
limited, however, in the amount of dust which can be recycled.
Insufflation has been done through the fuel burner pipe and also
through dust injection pipes located near the burner pipe. The
most common position of the dust injection pipe is above and
parallel to the burner pipe, slightly offset from directly above
the burner pipe.
Previous recycle attempts have had limited success for a
number of reasons. The primary reason is that the dust decreases
the rate of the combustion reaction and thereby lowers the flame
temperature. Other undesirable operational effects include high
CO emissions, increase in the cold end kiln temperature, too long
a flame, product increases greater amounts of incomplete clinker
formation, low free lime, and increased cold end dust generation.
Historically, high dust losses were not a high priority con-
cern until government land reclamation laws such as the Resource
Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) affected disposal. Costs
associated with mining and feed preparation are not a significant
part of production cost, as are product firing cost.
In accordance with an embodiment of the present invention
there is provided in a process for the operation of a rotary kiln
for the thermal processing of a mineral feed by combustion of a
fuel with air producing a flame in the kiln and in which a dust
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is generated from the mineral feed and is recovered from the
combustion products exiting the kiln and recycled to the kiln,
the improvement which comprises: enriching the air feed into the
kiln to combust fuel introduced into the kiln with oxygen concur-
rently with the recycling of the dust, raising the amount of
oxygen sufficiently to raise the concentration of oxygen to above
21% in the kiln and to thereby tend to shorten and intensify the
flame and balancing the amount of dust being recycled to the kiln
with consequent cooling of and lengthening of the flame against
the amount of oxygen enrichment, thereby maintaining the tempera-
ture profile of the kiln at the same level as when the kiln was
operated without oxygen enrichment and without dust recycling,
and wherein the material being processed is a mineral selected
from the group consisting of aluminas, clays, limes, cements and
other oxides, and the amount of dust recycled comprises between
2% and 20% by weight of the feed material.
BRIEF 8UMMARY OF THE lNV~:~. lON
In the present invention oxygen injection is used to obtain
a desired flame geometry and is dependent on the dust injection
system and kiln geometry in order to allow oxygen to counteract
the effect of dust recycling on flame geometry. For example, a
cement rotary kiln that returns dust through the burner pipe or
above the burner would cause the fuel ignition
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point to be delayed and a cooling of the flame at the dust/fuel interface
point. To counteract these effects, an oxygen enrichment is provided in the
present invention.
This invention allows a rotary kiln operation to increase dust return
to the process, thus increasing yields and minimizing dust disposal cost.
This is accomplished by using oxygen enrichment to control flame geometry
and combust the extra fuel required to convert the added dust into final
product.
This invention provides kiln operators with a means to increase dust
return or to dust insufflate when heretofore kiln temperature (i.e. l~me
kilns) would not allow it. The fact that oxygen enrichment increases the
rate of combustion reaction and flame temperature is well known. In the
process of this invention such oxygen enrichment is used to counteract an
opposite effect in order to maintaln the proper flame geometry. Therefore,
product quality, equipment operation, and temperature profile are maintained
constant while increasing product yield and diminishing dust disposal cost.
In cement processes where dust insufflat~on is practiced, the upper
limit of the rate of dust return is determined by the requirement to
mainta~n the desired kiln temperature profile. Maximized dust disposal ~s
by returning as much dust as the process will allow.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING
F~gure l is a schematic fragmentary view of the discharge end of a
rotary kiln embodying the invention.
Figure 2 is a section taken along line 2-2 of Figure l.
DETAILED ~SCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
The combustion of a fuel with oxygen results in a flame. The heat
released from this flame is a function of the flame geometry, e.g. a very
hot short flame will provide a very localized heat transfer area. Of
importance to a rotary kiln operation is a slow increase in temperature over
a large surface area covering the calcining zone. The shape of a flame in a
rotary kiln is a function of:
a. kiln geometry
b. burner design
c. fuel
d. Combustion air (primary or secondary) temperature and pressure
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e. oxygen concentration
f. front end temperature
g. draft and other varlables
Addition of dust or dust insufflatlon in a flame will cause this
flame to lengthen as the dust particulates act as a diluent ln the flame
atmosphere. The result is a reduction of the reaction rate, thus lncreasing
the reaction tlme to fully combust the fuel. As this occurs, a shift in the
temperature profile of a rotary kiln will occur, resulting in a coollng of
the burner end as less fuel is combusted in that area.
Increasing the oxygen concentration will increase the combustion rate
of a fuel. Adding oxygen to raise the concentration above 217. will result
in a shortening and intensification of the flame.
The addltion of oxygen to a rotary kiln for the manufacture of cement
by either a wet process or a dry process is described in
Humphries, et al., U.S. Patent 3,074,707 issued January 22,
1963, which describes conventional kiln structure with oxygen
enrichment (see Fig. 1 of Humphries).
In the past oxygen has been added as described in Humphries or by use
of separate oxygen fuel burner as described in Paul, et al., U.S. Patent
3,397,256 issued August 13, 1968, or by undershot lancing as described in
~ason 4,741,694 issued May 3, 1988, or by other known arra-ngements.
In the present invention the oxygen is introduced lnto the rotary kiln
by a pipe or lance located in the kiln in the manner described by Humphries,
et al. At the same time dust collected with the gases d~scharged from the
~5 kiln is recycled into the kiln by being blown in through a pipe located
above the burner used to heat the kiln.
As shown in the drawings rotary kiln 10 has a dlscharge end through
which material fed at the entry end of the kiln ls d~scharged after belng
processed ln the kiln. A housing 20 is provided around the discharge end of
the kiln. A burner 30 is mounted to extend through the housing and into the
kiln. Located below the burner is an oxygen injection lance 32 and located
above the burner slightly offset (e.g. at either 11 o~clock or 1 o'clock) is
a dust insufflation pipe 34. The oxygen lance may be retracted or advanced
so as to provide oxygen concentration in the kiln above 21% by volume and a
A
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desired temperature pattern at the discharge end, according to the amount of
dust being insufflated. The locat~on of the oxygen pipe is as descr~bed in
Humphries, et al., Patent 3,074,707.
One trial of oxygen-assisted dust insufflation operation was done on a
2400 TPD wet process kiln firing a coal: coke fuel blend. A O.g% enrichment
of total air was used to obtain the following results:
Dust generation constant
Dust return 33~ higher
Feed 3X higher
Dust wasted 15% decrease
Yield (prod.lfeed as clinker 5 percentage
equivalent increase) point improvement
Specific Fuel Consumption 6% decrease
(fuel per unit of production)
The above data shows a combination of production and yield increase
through feed and dust ~nsufflat~on increase respectively. This was the
result of dust return equipment lim~tation at the time of testing. Later
testing showed that keeping the feed rate constant ~mproved the result ~n
the following fashion when compared to the base data:
Dust generation Constant
Dust return 65-75% increase
Yield 6-7% increase
Dust wasted 10-15Z of dust generated
Specific Fuel Consumption 6% decrease
The small portion of dust wasted is the h~gh alkali fraction and is
considered non-reusable. This represents approxlmately 2-3% of production
rate. In this case, the undershot enrichment allows the kiln operator to
maximize yield by allowing h~m to return all the available dust. Also,
the 0.9% volume-percent enr~chment level of the total a~r flow maintained
the total volatile concentrat~on of the burning zone constant. This is
equivalent to 9000 SCFH/Ton of dust. The product quality was unchanged.
Back end temperature was ma~nta~ned at 425-450F, and refractory wear was
not noticeably changed over a per~od of s~x months of continuous operation.
Other benefits of the oxygen enr~chment pract~ce were increased stability
and recovery from low temperature excursion. This can be explained by
reducing dust actually increase the volat~lity content cf the burning zone.
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This, in fact, improves the combustion process by lowering the ignition
temperature or by ~ncreasing combustible availabil~ty.
From the trial data where dust insufflation was maximized the secondary
a~r temperature and back end temperature were relat~vely constant. Also,
the kiln N0x was malntained constant. This results in an actual decrease
in N0x per actual ton produced.
Another tr~al was conducted at another cement plant in wh~ch oxygen was
added through lance 32 in amounts so as to keep the burning zone constant
(flame pos~tion and geometry and product temperature profile) while
increasing the quant~ty of coke burned from 0 to 25% and reducing coal from
lO0 to 75%, the oxygen was added to maintain rate of combust~on constant.
In this case, N0x data and quallty data were taken and showed that
controll~ng volatile allowed one to control the flame geometry, position and
temperature and thus produced an ~dentical quality product and N0x
emissiOn-
The present invention has been specif~cally designed to be an
independent operation loop operating within the exist~ng k~ln parameters.
In the present invent70n:
a. A pure oxygen lance system is used to introduce oxygen rather than
an oxygen-fuel burner. This is a sign~ficant d~fference as pure oxygen alone
does not produce the intensely hot and highly d~rectlonal flame resulting
from an oxygen-fuel burner.
b. The k~ln burning zone length is maintained constant.
c. Product residence t~me and temperature profile are mainta~ned the
same as that previously used to meet quality requirements.
d. Draft was not reduced as ~t would shorten the burning zone, shift
the coat~ng bulld-up on the k~ln wall, lower the feed end temperature and
finally sh~ft the drying, preheat~ng, calcining and cl~nkerizat~on zone
toward the exit end of the kiln.
The dust insufflat~on technology of th~s ~nvent~on is based on
maintaining status quo in the burn~ng zone. The dust ~nsufflat~on ~n~ect~on
point will dictate the counter measure required. For example, lf dust ~s
added to the fuel, this w~ll lengthen the flame due to a reduction in
volatile content. A l% enrichment of the pr~mary air will give the same
effect as increasing volat~le content by 4%. Ma~nta~ning the effect~ve
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volatile content means that flame geometry, length and temperature will be
the same. Therefore, the oxygen addition can be calculated to compensate
for the dilution of the flame. On the other hand, if dust is added in the
space between the flame and the product and this area is defined as the
flame, maintaining a constant volatile content of this space, will keep the
boundaries constant, in the cases with and without oxygen. Therefore, the
flame is not intensif~ed but rather stabilizes by keeping volatile content
above the minimum requirement. This minimum is different for every ~iln as
it depends on factors such as burner and kiln design, air and fuel flow,
pressure and temperature. Such factors def~ne the stability of the
combustion process and flame geometry.
Because there is no change in the temperature of the flame nor the
length of the burning zone, other significant benefits can be achieved. It
is feasible to insufflate particles, either fine raw materials or kiln dust,
into lime kilns. This can not be done with an intense oxygen-fuel flame as
it would overburn the Calcium Oxide in the feedbed, mak~ng it non-reactive.
This invention provides an effective way of controlling nitrous oxlde (NOx)
emissions from a kiln. This is done by in~ecting heat absorbing particles
into the flame and thereby reducing the flame core temperature.
For the purposes of the present ~nvent~on between 2% and 20% by weight
of the feed materlal can be recycled dust and the amount of oxygen
enrichment should result in an oxygen concentration before combustion of
betwen 21~ and 25% by volume of the air/fuel mixture.
Having described a preferred embodiment of the ~nvention it is not
intended that it be limited except as it may be defined in the appended
claims.
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